The field of the disclosure relates generally to systems and methods for performing inspection and measurement activities, and more particularly, to a systems and methods for enabling remote inspection of target surfaces or structures by an unmanned aircraft.
In person human based inspections of structures and various types of target surfaces can be time consuming, expensive, difficult and often dangerous for an individual to perform. Examples of structures that pose significant challenges in inspecting: are bridges, dams, levees, power plants, buildings, power lines or electrical power grids, water treatment facilities, oil refineries, chemical processing plants, high rise buildings, land surveying, and construction sites.
The use of static cameras (for example, fixedly mounted cameras) to provide periodic pictures of a structure or object requiring periodic visual inspection can have limited effectiveness. Static cameras have a limited field-of-view. Therefore, inspecting a large area, such a power line stretching hundreds of meters or more, is difficult without using a large number of such cameras. Furthermore, once a camera is mounted in place, it may not be easily accessible for repair or maintenance. The mounting of the camera may require it to be exposed to the elements, which can decrease the reliability and/or cost of operation of the camera.
Infrastructure may require inspection where because of environmental, chemical or biological elements the inspection would place a human worker at significant, risk to his or her health. Such a situation might be found inside a manufacturing facility, where a periodic regular inspection of a portion of the facility or machines operating within it, in areas where harmful chemicals may be present, needs to be made. Still other structures, for example large antennas or telescopes located on mountains, can present situations where inspection by a human presents significant risk to the individual's safety.
In some inspection applications, human piloted helicopters have been used to inspect various infrastructures. However, human piloted helicopters can be expensive to operate in terms of asset cost (helicopter, fuel and maintenance) and operational cost (pilot salary). In addition, inspection is limited by the available number of pilots and helicopters and can be hazardous in some instances, such as during rain or dust storms.
Some inspection procedures use an unmanned aircraft for surveying, inspecting, and measuring structures or surfaces. Conventional unmanned aircraft, however, tend to focus on flight and control first, while payload can be considered a secondary consideration. Typical instrumentation payload may have to adapt to the environment the flight system experiences. Conventional unmanned aircraft may include specific gimbals, vibration control, and gimbal ready verification system to activate the instrumentation. These current unmanned systems can be complex, expensive, heavy, and high energy consumers.
Moreover, some unmanned aircraft may require an angle of approach to accomplish different positions for inspection. Current unmanned aircraft may require a positive angle of approach to maintain altitude and require to gimbals to compensate for prevailing winds. Other unmanned aircraft may require a negative angle of approach in order to move forward and pitch into the wind for drift. These types of umnanned aircraft may require separate and costly stabilization platforms for instrumentation which further add weight and complexity to the unmanned aircraft.